Station Crew Prepares for Japanese, Russian Cargo Craft

Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli and Catherine Coleman continued additional robotics training Tuesday as they prepare for the arrival of the Kounotori2 H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV2) on Thursday.

The crew will use the station’s robot arm to grapple Kounotori2 at 6:44 a.m. EST with berthing to the nadir, or Earth-facing, port of the Harmony node a few hours later. HTV2 launched Saturday from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard an H-IIB launch vehicle with 4.2 tons of supplies.

With the launch of the new ISS Progress 41 cargo ship from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan set for 8:31 p.m. Thursday, Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka reviewed procedures for manual rendezvous techniques with TORU, the Russian telerobotically operated rendezvous system. The crew can use TORU to monitor the Progress’ approach for docking or take control of the process if difficulties arise. Progress 41 will deliver around 3 tons of food, water, fuel, air, equipment, research samples and other supplies when it docks to the station’s Pirs docking compartment on Saturday.

Flight Engineer Dmitry Kondratyev spent much of his day reconfiguring Pirs following a five-hour, 23-minute spacewalk he and Skripochka conducted Friday. The spacewalkers completed installation of a new high-speed data transmission system, removed an old plasma pulse experiment, installed a camera for the new Rassvet docking module and retrieved a materials exposure package.

All six crew members participated in a series of emergency drills Tuesday, rehearsing their roles and responsibilities in the event of a fire or an ammonia leak aboard the orbiting complex. Afterward, they tagged up with flight controllers to discuss the results of the drills.

The station’s residents also had several opportunities to observe and document the condition of their home planet as they orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. Among the sites suggested by researchers for photography Tuesday were Shanghai, China, and Wellington, New Zealand.